Waiting for a disaster!

Speeding in Salisbury Avenue

Frustrated and angry residents contacted Swanley & District Labour party because they were very worried about the continuing influx of cars trying to avoid traffic jams in that were shooting down Salisbury Avenue at high speed.

We petitioned the local residents, and every resident that we were able to ask signed the petition. People were very anxious about their safety, particularly their children and the elderly. There was a presentation of the petition to the Join KCC Highways Board meeting on June 14th.

Labour Councillor Mike Hogg spoke to meeting. He stressed that unless action was taken to stop people speeding in this formerly quiet and peaceful residential street there was soon to be a very serious incident.

He was answered by an officer of KCC, who knew so little she thought Salisbury Avenue was a bus route. She said as there were no reports of accidents there was no problem.

This blasé attitude was repeated by Michael Payne, Deputy Cabinet Member for Planning, Highways, Transport and Waste. The letter states:

Through analysis of the injury crash data recorded by Kent Police for Salisbury Avenue we have established that the evidence does not indicate that further engineering measures at this location would have any road safety benefit…”

This attitude is infuriating residents who are witnessing horrendous near misses on a daily basis. Labour Councillor Mike Hogg stated:

Do we have to wait for a child to be killed before any action is taken? This is another instance to show the Tories who control Kent and Sevenoaks do not care about the people of Swanley.”

It is clear that a 20 mph speed limit, enforced with speed cameras is necessary to prevent serious injury or death. Post Grenfell Tower it is time that the Tories listened to the concerns of residents, based on their local knowledge and experience.